Does AI Usage Improve Academic Performance, or Student Behaviour Matter More? Evidence from a Large-Scale Study in India

Abstract

The rapid penetration of artificial intelligence (AI) in the education sector has created much debate regarding the actual impact of AI on student learning outcomes. Yet, there is limited research that investigates whether AI impacts student learning outcomes through direct or indirect mechanisms. This study aims to design a behavioral mediation model to examine the relationship between AI usage frequency, encouragement of teachers, and academic enhancement for students in the regional setting of a developing country, namely India. The study collected the required data from 1,557 school- and college-level students using a structured questionnaire method. A composite Academic Enhancement Index is designed to represent the perceived academic enhancement of access to learning resources, academic performance, and learning motivation for the students. Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis is conducted to verify the proposed research hypotheses. The study reveals that frequency of usage of AI predicts academic enhancement for the students; however, encouragement of teachers does not show a statistically significant impact on academic enhancement for the students. Yet, encouragement of teachers influences academic enhancement through the frequency of using AI for the students, indicating that there is a behavioral mediation relationship between the variables. This study provides much-needed empirical evidence from the regional setting of a developing country; hence, it contributes to the existing body of knowledge of using AI for the education sector